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Dear students, parents, and guardians,

 

Welcome to my staff webpage for Bishop Montgomery High School! I am currently the English Language Learning Coordinator for Amerigo Education. Amerigo Education partnered with Bishop Montgomery High School in 2018, with the goal of helping international students study at elite US high schools and matriculate into US universities. I joined Amerigo Education and BHMS in 2018, and I've had the honor of building this partnership and welcoming international students from around the world. 

 

My primary instructional goal is to help students develop their English language skills. English language skills are important for many reasons: 1. they are an important factor in students' academic success in their classes at BMHS, 2. they are the foundation for students' personal experiences in the United States, and 3. they are critical for students' college admissions and success in college.

 

In my role as ELLC, I teach classes in the Academic Reading and Composition (ARC) Program. This program focuses on helping students develop their academic reading and writing skills, as well as their formal and informal speaking and listening skills. There are three levels to ARC, and Amerigo students are required to complete two years of this program.

 

In my ARC classes, I help students develop reading comprehension skills such a previewing, predicting, inferring, speed reading, analyzing and evaluating. I also help students develop their writing skills, including their abilities to think critically, brainstorm ideas, organize an outline, draft a paper, review and edit, use new vocabulary, and develop their grammar skills. Additionally, I help students develop their speaking and listening skills through group work, projects, notetaking activities, discussions, and presentations. 

 

Outside of the classroom, I support students by facilitating extra classes for English development, coordinating study sessions, and overseeing an in-house tutoring program. Further, I serve the teachers at BMHS by providing staff trainings and assistance with differentiating their instruction for international/non-native English speaking students. I also work closely with the Amerigo residential staff, who live with and guide our international students while they are here in the United States. 

 

Prior to joining Amerigo Education, I worked at the University of California Riverside, from 2012 to 2018, where I was an academic coordinator for various professional certificate and language programs. Before UCR, I worked at Politecnico Internacional, where I taught English as a foreign language, and the Center for Teacher Development, where I trained teachers. These institutions are located in San Jose, Costa Rica, where I lived from 2010- 2012. Before working in Costa Rica, I taught non- credit ESL to adult immigrant students and international college students in the US for four years. I taught ESL and English Composition at the University of Alabama as an adjunct faculty (and graduate student) from 2007 - 2010, and I taught ESL at the Lifelong Learning Center in Waldorf, MD, from 2006 - 2007.

 

In 2009, I completed a Master’s in TESOL at the University of Alabama. I also hold a Bachelor’s in Spanish (with a minor in Linguistics) from Wake Forest University, where I studied from 2002 - 2006. I also earned a certificate in English-Spanish translation, and a certificate in English-Spanish interpreting, as a student at Wake Forest. 

 

As a result of these experiences, I have a strong background in teaching, curriculum development, online teaching, domestic and international marketing, student advising, teacher and staff supervision and development, database management, and project management, and corporate training. I am a passionate teacher, teacher trainer, and program administrator.